Why a new sim when changing plans?

lawnarjax
Novice II

So I have 2 lines on visible, several years now. Prior to that had verizon, changed plans many times no sim card swap needed for those plan changes.

 

We changed both plans recently, one iphone one samsung.  Iphone went smooth and samsung did not. But we finally got them done. Strangely the plan change requires a sim card swap.  I am no telcom tech, can someone tell me why this is needed?  I feel like we are being tricked into an inferior network. I plan to wait it out and see what happens if I dont swap the sims. I have also read posts where the new sims are not working.  If anyone has insight on this I would love to hear. 

1 REPLY 1

Anonymous
Not applicable

The original Visible plan used a cloud-based service with proxy servers that separated it from the main Verizon network. This is the reason why latency on the now grandfathered Visible plan was historically so high compared to standard cellular connections - a connection had to pass through the cloud-based network.

The new plans operate directly on the Verizon network. Generally, this yields better latency (lower ping times) as well as access to Verizon's domestic roaming partners that increases coverage for Visible customers on the new plans.

This change required new physical SIMs or eSIMs. For many including myself it was a rough transition but at least for me was worth the aggravation. Without installing and activating the new SIMs you'll likely remain on the grandfathered plans (which will eventually go away). I would hope by now Visible has sorted out the initial flurry of activation problems for the new plans.